Come and Stay
by bakedvause
Summary: Before Piper left Alex, they planned on forever. Pre-Litchfield.
1. Chapter 1

**I.**

* * *

Piper was stressed.

Her landlord was a sleazy musician who would swear up and down that he was the next Kurt Cobain, though that was one of the lesser problems that she was forced to deal with everyday. Yes, she saw him everyday because apparently being a struggling musician also meant that it was a sin to find a real job until your career kicked off. Piper disagreed. He had been hounding her for rent money for the month, but didn't seem to have the capacity to grasp that due to the fact that he had raised the price on her out of _nowhere_, she didn't have the cash. She had made the decision to quit her last job on the grounds of her boss being a revolting perv and she was smart enough to put her safety before her income.

Her landlord nearly made her regret her choice. So she was searching for a new job, a stack of her résumés in her purse as she walked down the city's streets to a bar that she wouldn't mind working in. With her coat slung over her other arm, she pushed the door open and stepped inside of the relaxed establishment. Her steps up to the bar counter were tentative and measured when she spotted a group of alternative young adults perhaps only a bit older than herself sporting many tattoos and odd piercings. Her mother would have cringed. Though, her mother would have never set foot in this neighborhood to begin with if Piper was being honest with herself. With a sigh she made it to the counter and adjusted her purse strap nervously. She had been looking all day. If she didn't get this job then she wasn't sure where she would search next. Her back jolted straight at a feminine voice coming from behind her and to the right.

"Hey, you. Laura Ingalls Wilder." The last part was said with an obvious smirk in the voice and she turned around, positive of the exact table that the voice had emerged from.

She locked eyes with a pale woman, her black hair pinned up at the top while the bottom half flowed freely around her shoulders and black framed glasses sat atop her nose. She wasn't drunk yet, but it was clear that she had been drinking.

"We're skipping America before the apocalypse, wanna come?" She asked with a smirk as she tilted the beer in her hand to her red lips. Piper shook her head slightly in confusion as she watched the woman with slight fascination.

"Sorry?" She questioned. Before the odd woman a couple tables down could explain further, the bartender came up behind the counter.

"What can I get for you?"

Piper slowly turned back around, trying her hardest to not look back at the raven haired woman behind her and said, "Oh, hi. I was wondering if you're hiring?"

A flash of regret was on the man's bearded face as he shook his head.

"No, sorry." A sinking feeling set into Piper's stomach as her mind automatically went a million miles a second trying to figure out what her next step would be. It was a bad habit of hers, not being able to function unless everything was planned out perfectly. She was trying to fix it, she really was. She held her résumé up over the wooden counter with a pleading look in her blue eyes.

"Well, can I leave this with you?" she inquired with a flash of hope. Maybe he or the manager might look it over when she leaves and call her tomorrow. That hope, however, was dashed as soon as the man said, "Honestly, it's just gonna end up in a drawer somewhere, so…"

With a simple, "Okay." Piper flashed a quick glance behind her to that table of 'alternative monstrosities', as her mother would have so affectionately deemed them, and said, "Well, can I have a margarita then? The bartender smiled a bit and pointed his finger in her direction with a sense of relief that she didn't push the subject any further.

"_That_, I can do for you." And as he went about making her drink, and Piper sat down at the barstool, she heard footsteps approaching from her right as well as a chorus of  
"Don't!" and "No!" being snickered from that table.

The tall, pale woman from before slowly set her beer on the bar counter and turned to look at Piper.

"It's a little cold out for a margarita, don't you think?" The raven haired woman questioned with an inadvertently suggestive quirk of her eyebrow. Piper just stared.

The woman reached for her job application and held it up to inspect it further.

"Let's see this." She murmured. "Steve's Greek Cuisine, Le Gramme Fromage, bullshit, bullshit." She chuckled. "You need a lesson in fudging a résumé."

Piper's criminally innocent eyes blinked up at the taller woman from her spot on the barstool.

"Do you work here?"

The pale beauty smirked in disbelief down at the shorter blonde woman, her green eyed gaze piercing through her glasses.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

Piper merely swallowed and kept her careful gaze on the odd woman beside her.

"Manager of Polly Harper." The woman began again with a growing grin on her dark red lips. "No one named Polly Harper gets put in charge, who is that really?"

Piper felt her lips pull into a grin as she looked up into amused green eyes.

"It's my friend." She admitted with a small laugh and the raven haired woman laughed out loud with mirth. With a smile, she looked down at Piper, having somehow gotten closer to her without noticing.

"You've never waited a fucking table in your life, have you?"

The blonde looked down for a second before deciding against lying to her. She shook her head. "…No." She admitted with a small smile.

"So… Piper Chapman." The forward woman read from the application sheet.

"The Smith grad with excellent listening skills, passionate about making diner's feel good." The green eyed woman chuckled teasingly. "Hmm… seems freaky."

The bartender returned and gently set Piper's margarita in front of the two women and the taller one motioned for him to put the drink on her tab. She held the paper back up and continued to read. "Safe, clean, and careful when handling food and drink." She mocked with a grin and Piper laughed, snatching the paper away from her with a slight tint to her cheeks. The blonde rubbed her forehead in embarrassment even though a tiny grin still played on the corners of her lips.

"I like that in a woman." The raven haired enigma said confidently. Piper glanced at her briefly before looking back down at her lap. When she glanced back up, the woman's face was more serious than it had been before.

"What else do I need to know about you?"

Piper stared deeply into her eyes for a moment before her blue eyed gaze flickered down to her red lips in fascination.

"Who are you?" The blonde wondered with slight awe in her voice.

"My name is Alex." The green eyed woman stated, staring down at Piper with a look in her eyes that suggested she knew how everything would play out before it did and it would all go in her favor, though it wasn't a privileged look at all. Piper knew privileged, had seen it her entire life, and lived it. This look was one of someone who fought for where they were and had no plans of losing their spot in the world any time soon. She wanted to know where exactly that spot was.

A smile grew on Piper's lips and she asked, "What do you do, Alex? Besides make fun of strangers in bars." Alex gave her a look between smug and proud, then said,

"I work for an international drug cartel."

Piper's expression dropped and for a moment she looked genuinely unnerved by what she had just been told. But then Alex's grin broke through her serious façade and she laughed loudly, so Piper grinned as well.

"Come sit with us." Alex said suddenly as she threw a glance back in the direction of the rest of her friends. Piper followed her gaze and soon met the raven haired woman's eyes again. Alex led the wary blonde over to her table, now short of four people, with her drink in hand. Her dark eyebrows quirked in a question that got answered before she even asked.

"Kellan, Ava, and Jamie had an, um…" The woman next to the chair that Alex had previously occupied cut her brown eyed gaze toward Piper cautiously. "They had some business to tend to." She continued with a slight raise of her eyebrows on 'business'. Alex nodded once in understanding and pulled up another chair from a nearby table so that Piper could sit on the other side of her. The blonde was silent as the green eyed woman placed her hand on the small of her back and guided Piper down into her seat. Once they were sitting, three new pairs of eyes were trained on her. The woman immediately beside Alex spoke first, a redhead with intricate tattoos decorating her small hands.

"I'm Meghan." She smirked, though it wasn't the gentle, teasing one that Alex had worn since the moment they made eye contact. Meghan's smirk was right on the line between condescending and smug.

"I'm-" Before Piper could introduce herself, the redhead held a tattoo-decorated hand up to stop her.

"No, let me guess… Rich, sheltered, girl next door with parents who would probably shit themselves if they knew you were here. Am I right so far?"

"Meg, enough." Alex interrupted as Piper only stared at her in wide-eyed shock. She'd never met someone so rude since her landlord. Maybe she _was _sheltered. A pretty blonde girl across from her shook her head. "Meg doesn't mean that. She's just bitter because her boyfriend took a ride on her sister's merry-go-round last night." She grinned evilly. As the two stared each other down, Piper's mouth opened and closed several times as she tried to find the words to say. These people were _friends_?

"I'm sorry about your boyfriend…" She apologized to the redhead. "My name is Piper." The blonde tried again and was greeted with a raised eyebrow from the blonde who had come to her defense alongside Alex.

"Charlise. Enchante, sweetheart."

The air around the table was filled with strong personalities and brilliant minds; however the body language of the group very clearly stated that Alex was in charge. The way that they looked toward her for what was quite likely approval whenever they said something a bit over the line or backed down when the tall woman made it clear that she was not amused was just proof of that. Who the hell was this Alex woman, really? After an intense debate between Meghan and Charlise between Monotheism and Polytheism with Alex interjecting every once in a while, Piper and Alex frequently caught each other's glances and tried not to be weird about it. Alex purposefully turned her gaze back onto the shorter woman.

"So, Piper, how about that offer from earlier?" The woman inquired with a quirk of her eyebrow and her right hand coming up to lift her glasses up onto the top of her head.

"The one about skipping America? What was that about, anyway?" The blonde questioned with doe eyed innocence.

"Well, we figured if any apocalypse decides to fuck up our life plans by cutting them short, it would probably start in this shithole country first." Alex smirked and the three other girls around the table nodded in agreement, even the one who sat furthest from Alex who hadn't said a word since Piper had taken a seat.

"You were serious?"

Alex let out a hearty laugh that echoed through the bar. Several straggling patrons glanced their way briefly at the outburst.

"That depends." The raven haired woman chuckled after her laughter had died down some. The blonde never took her gaze from Alex as she tilted her head slightly and her brows drew downward in contemplation.

"On what?"

"Would you like to come with us? We're skipping out to Paris in a week." The green eyed woman asked seriously. There wasn't much else for Piper to hold onto here in New York. She couldn't find a job, her parents were down her throat since they only lived half an hour away. Why the hell not? She needed adventure in her life. Maybe she could finally find herself and realize who she exactly wants to be. If this woman, Alex, could fight for her spot in the world then why shouldn't she? The blonde tried not to think about the fact that they were strangers or the number of things that could go poorly by trusting them to get her to Paris. The best things in life were done out of impulse. And she was tired of over-thinking. So she nodded slightly with a shy smile tugging at the corners of her lips as she agreed.

"Great. Come to my dinner party tomorrow night. You can meet the rest of us." The pale woman was handed a pen by Charlise and she scrawled her number out on a napkin from the center of the table. Before Piper got a chance to respond or even ask a question, the group of four were standing and walking out of the bar into the cold city air. Piper wasn't sure where hanging around Alex would take her, but it was clear that it would be one hell of a ride.

The next morning, Piper was pissed. She had been woken from her sleep at some ungodly hour by her obnoxious landlord, Harvey. However, she only ever called him by his last name, Jenkins, to his face in order to constantly establish that she had no interest in any type of mutual friendship or contact between them both. All thoughts aside, Harvey had come up the rickety apartment stairs and banged on her front door with zero regard for the early hour, giving some bullshit spiel about how he needed the money no later than Friday. Piper nearly cursed him out right then. For fuck's sake it was already Thursday and she only had half of the bill money. Her mother would faint if she didn't give into moving back in with her soon and Piper would rather deal with a hundred Harvey's than deal with her mother twenty-four-seven. After grudgingly assuring him that she'll get the money, never mind that she had no clue _how_, she locked the door behind him and slid down onto the wood floorboards. The absolute last thing she wanted to do was to ask her parents for money. It would only further prove to them that she needed to go back home until she was on her feet. The blonde rested her forehead against her knees pulled to her chest and gently tapped her fingers on the floor in an attempt to calm herself down. _Fuck, fuck, __**fuck.**_

She was broken out of her self-pity by a thought that seemed to come from nowhere. Piper scrambled from her spot on the floor and ran the very short distance to her bedroom where she searched frantically for the pair of jeans that she had worn the night before. After finding them tossed over the side of her hamper, she dug through the front pockets for a moment before pulling out a wrinkled napkin with digits scrawled on it in controlled chaos. Alex was very much like her handwriting. With her other hand, Piper grabbed her phone from her nightstand and pulled it off of the charger while unlocking the screen and typing in the number given to her the night before. Never mind the fact that it was damn near six in the morning, when Piper Chapman was determined to turn her life around she wanted to do it _now_. Surprisingly, Alex answered the phone on the fourth ring, her voice as husky and alluring as it was last night, though this time she was sober.  
"_Vause_." She answered professionally. Her voice, even from that one word, was collected and in control. Piper smiled.

"Hi, this is Piper… from last night at the bar." She explained, setting the napkin down onto the nightstand and gently dropping herself down onto the bed. She heard a chuckle from the other line and her stomach clenched a bit.

"_Oh yeah, the shitty résumé writer. Of course I remember." _She chuckled into Piper's ear, teasing the blonde without remorse. Blue eyes rolled as a smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

"Really, that's all you remember me by?" She played along with the sound of a smile in her gentle voice. Piper was never quite an outspoken person. Alex made her feel risky, however.

"_That, and your amazing doe-eyed lost soul impression." _The other woman smirked through the other line and Piper raised her eyebrows. This was not the first time that someone told her she seemed too innocent for her own good. Well, she planned to change that, because it's not who she was.

"Is the offer still up for that party tonight?" She asked hesitantly. She needed a break, and maybe then she could get on Alex's good side enough to hint at needing to get away from New York as soon as possible if the brunette was really serious about skipping the country. If not, she would go to her last resort of swallowing her pride and asking her parents for rent money.

"_Hell yeah. Let me take you shopping, kid. I have a strong feeling that your wardrobe options are as shitty as your résumé." _

Trying to not take offence, as she knew that the other woman was a very teasing and playful person, she sighed.

"You're never going to let that go, are you?" She asked, leaning back onto her bed and sprawling out across the light green covers.

"_I'll think about it."_

Piper smiled at the voice on the other line. Alex Vause was mysterious and Piper had always harbored a weakness for people who didn't wear their heart on their sleeves, people that she had to work hard to learn about. They were fascinating.

"When are we going shopping?"

"_Text me your address and I'll be there in an hour_." Alex responded and hung up without any goodbyes or warning.

Alex Vause was exciting.

True to her word, a sleek and jet black sports car was parked outside of her shitty apartment in her shitty neighborhood within the hour. Incidentally, Piper began to mentally berate herself for not thinking about what she was doing when she gave the brunette her address. She wasn't worried about Alex knowing it, more that she was embarrassed that this woman, this very obviously well off woman, would know what a shit hole she lived in. Piper sighed when she received the text from Alex saying that she was outside and if she wasn't down in the next five minutes then she was leaving. The blonde wasn't one hundred percent sure if she was joking or not, but she didn't want to take that chance. So, dressed in simple black leggings, sneakers, and a cozy hoodie with her old college's name across the front, she stepped up to the stupidly expensive car with apprehension in her eyes. Alex only let the passenger's side window down and quirked a perfectly arched eyebrow above her black framed glasses.

"What's the matter, kid?"

The blonde looked from Alex to the car door's handle nervously for a moment before opening her mouth to speak.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked quietly, a much different quiet than how she had been when they first met the night before. This quiet was insecure and unsure. Piper was afraid. The raven haired woman only frowned at the tone of her voice and the flash of apprehension behind her blue eyes. Leaning over and pushing the door open for the shorter blonde, Alex just gestured for Piper to enter. After the blonde was buckled into the plush interior seat, Alex rolled the window up and turned to look at her passenger.

"What do you mean am I sure about this? Oh, and good morning to you too by the way. Since I clearly can't get something that simple over the phone." She smirked that heart stuttering smirk of hers and Piper even smiled a bit before her face fell once more.

"Why did you offer me this? Because if you think that because of where I live that I don't have any money-"

Alex cut her off with the raising of her hand closest to Piper as well as with a disbelieving chuckle. "Piper, I didn't even know what your home was like until I got here. I don't care where you live. I just wanted to take a beautiful woman out to have a good time." Alex gave a half smile, showing her white teeth between her red lips for the first time instead of that tantalizing smirk and Piper was reassured, at least for the time being, that Alex would not judge her on status like her parents so often led her to believe everyone would. This mystery of a woman, Alex, was genuinely being nice to her. Whether it was because Piper was pretty or had something that the other woman wanted, she had no idea; however she liked the feeling of someone wanting to take her out with nothing in return but her company. As the silent engine of the car started up and Alex pulled out of the tight spot between two ancient cars on her street, one of which sported a car boot on one of the back wheels, the blonde looked over at Alex. She didn't know what it was about her, but she wouldn't mind being the woman's company. In fact, she was the type of person that could probably charm Piper out of every penny to her name if she wanted. But Alex had her own money, and she just wanted Piper.

They were fitting.

As Alex drove further into the city, with its completely different look during the day as opposed to the bright lights that illuminated the buildings and streets after the sun went down, they went back and forth with playful banter that nearly always ended up with Alex saying something that made Piper feel heated in more places than one and the blonde blushing because of it. Then Alex would laugh her loud and carefree laugh that Piper honestly would never get tired of hearing, and then the shorter woman would smile the smile that made Alex's stomach do this foreign thing where it clenched and flipped around within her body. When they stepped into the shopping mall, Alex held the door open for the blonde woman beside her and flashed a smirk as Piper raised an eyebrow.

"You're very chivalrous." The blonde noted with a smile tugging at her bare lips and her hands shoved into the pockets of her hoodie as she stepped inside the door. Alex chuckled and followed in after her, tilting her body to bump her hip into Piper's playfully.

"Or you just have very damsel-like tendencies. You look like the type to land yourself into perilous situations more often than not." The taller woman teased with that perpetual smirk on her deep red lips. Piper blushed with a frown tugging her eyebrows down defensively.

"Do you really think that?" She asked, genuinely worried for how she must seem to this woman. Her blush only deepened when Alex grinned widely and shook her head with a short laugh.

"You're so fucking gullible."

"Alex!" The shorter woman complained and instinctively reached out to smack her companion on the arm. Alex continued to laugh at Piper's expense and lifted her glasses off of her nose and up onto the top of her head while flipping stray strands of hair over her shoulder. They made their way into one of the newer stores to open up at the mall, Piper's face lighting up in glee once her blue eyes landed on a dress in the store window. She grabbed Alex's wrist suddenly and yanked the taller woman behind her with a grin on her lips. Green eyes shifted downward and watched in amusement as this girl, whom she's only known for about a day now, very gradually made her feel things that she promised long ago to never feel for anyone who she wanted to work for her.

It wasn't smart, nor was it healthy to gain feelings for any of her drug mules. Well, Piper wasn't one yet, and Alex feared that she was too innocent to even be a good one, even though the adventurous side of the blonde woman was rearing every time that she was around Alex. Piper was different in that she seemed to want to get as far away from her personality as she could by jumping head first into the last thing that she would have ever done otherwise. Everyone else that Alex had ever recruited came from broken homes, struggling families, off the street where they have lived their entire lives, but not Piper. Piper didn't have a broken home. Piper was probably sheltered her entire life, and Alex made it her goal to find out why exactly the blonde wanted so badly to be like the hundreds of people she'd met who have come from nothing.

After browsing the store and picking up and putting back several different outfits, the pair eventually made their way to the dressing rooms. The changing area consisted of three spacious rooms, each with a wall-length mirror surrounded by fluorescent lights, a coffee table, and two couches. Hooks lined up beside the mirror for hanging clothes, and at first Piper entered alone. Once she saw how much space there was, she hesitated slightly before turning around and gesturing for Alex to enter also. The brunette quirked an eyebrow while staring at her with those green eyes that were even more hypnotic without the glasses creating a barrier between her and the wearer. Idly, Piper decided that she wasn't sure if she liked the taller woman with or without her glasses more. Piper locked eyes with the pale woman and said, "Come help me get dressed." With a teasing smirk, already picking the trait up from Alex, and the taller woman's eyes widened in appreciation as a smile played on her red lips. She followed Piper inside.

The blonde lay out her clothes on one of the couches while Alex lounged on the one directly in front of the mirror and also right behind Piper. The brunette's long, leather clad legs stretched out across the cream leather furniture as she appraised the blonde from behind. With growing confidence, Piper turned to face Alex with a small grin playing on her lips. The green eyed woman wondered exactly she was about do when Piper slowly tugged off her hoodie, leaving her in only a camisole and her leggings. The blonde crossed her arms to grab both sides of the bottom of her shirt and slowly pulled it over her head, barely breaking eye contact with the woman across from her.

Alex bit her bottom lip and let her white teeth glide over the skin while raking her gaze up and down Piper's toned body. Slowly moving her hips to the indie song playing through the store's speakers, the shorter woman turned back around to face the mirror, keeping her eyes locked with Alex's through the glass instead. She gripped the waist band of her leggings and slowly bent over to tug them down over her firm ass. Blue eyes watched as Alex slowly rose from her seat and stalked over to her with a hungry look blazing an inferno behind those green irises. Piper stepped out of her leggings after kicking off her shoes and had to suppress a moan as Alex reached around her from behind and gripped her hips possessively.

They locked eyes in the mirror as the taller woman ran her hand up the blonde's tight stomach and ghosted beneath her breasts before pulling her hand back down to her hips and biting her shoulder. Piper's long hair brushed against Alex's arm as the brunette wrapped an arm around her hips and pulled her until she was flush against the taller woman's front. Trailing the bites from shoulder to neck, Alex ran her lips over the she shell of Piper's ear and whispered, "I don't think you know what you're getting into."

Piper studied the green eyes in the mirror for a moment before letting her lips curve upward slightly.

"Life's too short to worry about what I'm getting into." She murmured while lifting her hand to trace circles on the taller woman's arm. Alex tilted her head to suck teasingly at the blonde's neck. Her pale fingers glided back up Piper's toned stomach and she gripped her breast firmly in her hand through the shorter woman's bra. A quiet moan floated through the room as Piper lay her head back against Alex's shoulder, further exposing her bare neck. Alex ran her hand back down to her panties, gently cupping her center while catching her eye in the mirror once more. Piper let out a ragged breath and closed her eyes as she anticipated what would come next.

However, it didn't.

Suddenly the hands were gone along with the warmth of Alex's fit body, and when she opened her eyes once more, the brunette was resuming her seat back on the leather couch.

"Are you trying on these clothes, or not?" She smirked when Piper turned her head to watch her in disbelief.

Maybe Piper didn't have any idea what she was so adamant about diving into headfirst, but Alex was unpredictable and unorthodox and a hundred other things that her parents would never agree with and she couldn't have loved it more.

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, I was writing this along with You Loved It and I really didn't want to wait to put this out here. I'm still not sure how I feel about it though, so let me know what you think.


	2. Chapter 2

**II**

* * *

Instead of going back home, Piper rode passenger's seat to Alex's house instead to help her prepare for the dinner party that would be held later on that night. When they pulled up to the house, Alex glided the vehicle into her winding driveway and passed an expansive, green front lawn with sprinklers rotating to a timer in order to keep the grass watered. There were trimmed hedges lining the walkway up to the large, mahogany front door, and by the time Alex had her keys out to let them inside, Piper was staring in awe.

This home was nicer than anything even she had seen, which was saying something considering that she had been surrounded by upper classed homes and families since she was born. She found it odd that Alex had gotten quieter the closer they got to the house, and even more abnormal that the brunette was absolutely silent as she carried in last minuet groceries inside of a brown bag that took up her entire arm. Piper held her several shopping bags in her own hands as Alex pushed the door open and held it for her to enter. The blonde took in her surroundings with slightly parted lips. The left and right walls to the immediate entrance were both completely made of durable glass, sectioned off into large squares by a skinny, mahogany panel running from floor to ceiling and spaced evenly across the wall.

The wall right in front of the entrance was made from a dark gray stone with a massive flat screen television mounted in the center and a thin section running from one end of the wall to the other that served as a long fireplace. A bench jutted out from beneath it for seating. There was one long, white leather sofa in front of the wall, far enough back from it that everyone sitting could comfortably watch the television, and to the right and left of the long couch were two smaller love seats of the same material. Plants scattered about the room were tasteful accents that added life to the very modern styled layout and what could only be described as little spotlights ran in a line across the ceiling.

Piper was stunned.

She hadn't noticed that Alex had been gauging her reaction until she finally looked toward the brunette with her mouth still agape. The green eyed woman looked almost self-conscious, standing in the center of the room with her feet together, both arms wrapped around the paper bag as if it were a buffer between her and Piper, and eyebrows drawn down just barely as if expecting a reprimand of some sort.

"It's beautiful, Alex." The blonde beamed widely.

Piper was barely unable to contain herself at the prospect of seeing the rest of the house. She couldn't fathom why on earth the ivory skinned woman would feel apprehensive about displaying her home. With nothing more than a small smile lifting the corners of her lips and the miniscule relaxation of her shoulders, Alex guided them further into the house, specifically toward the kitchen. Piper gazed onward while Alex set out ingredients prepared from the day before and began to prep the new groceries today. The smaller woman moved smoothly to the counter opposite the table where Alex set out all of the food out after dropping her shopping bags by the entrance, swinging her feet a bit so that the backs of her sneakers bumped the cabinet beneath where she was perched.

"You cook?" Piper questioned, watching the raven haired woman pull out a cutting board and a particularly sharp knife. Alex chuckled and looked over her shoulder at her guest with a mischievous glint in her eyes. The sunlight coming in through the wide window behind Piper glinted off of the other woman's glasses and just slightly revealed the specks of hazel in those green eyes.

"You have a lot to learn, kid." She grinned and nodded toward a small grey remote by Piper's hand.

"Press play on that." Piper raised a curious eyebrow and turned her head toward where Alex gestured. Hesitantly, the blonde picked up the rectangular device and pressed the button with the 'Play' symbol on it. From unseen speakers, a happy song that she had only heard once or twice filtered through the room and she found a smile pulling at her lips a few moments into the song.

'_But you gotta keep your head up, oh. And you can let your hair down, eh.'_

"I can't believe you listen to this stuff." Piper grinned at the brunette amusedly while absently bobbing her head to the music. Alex's leather jacket clad back was turned to her once more, but the blonde could see her shoulders rise and fall.

"Surprise, I have a weakness for happy music." Alex's voice was confident; as if she didn't particularly care that she was supposed to fit a certain image based on how she appeared to others.

What could she say? She liked what she liked. Piper slid down to the floor, her feet tapping gently down onto the tile. The kitchen was bright and open with natural light filtering in through the many large windows around the room. Piper leaned against the counter beside Alex, simply observing her cutting vegetables with a practiced precision and ease before looking up and trailing her gaze over the curve of the taller woman's jaw. Alex seemed to be very slightly moving her head from side to side along with the tune of the song floating throughout the kitchen.

"Anyone ever told you that you've got a staring problem?" Alex questioned while slightly turning her head to look at Piper briefly. The knife cut the last of the pepper in her hand and she used the blunt side of the stainless steel to swipe it to one side of the cutting board before grabbing a different pepper and beginning to cut that one as well. That adventurous side of Piper reared its head once more in the relaxed atmosphere of the house, so the blonde was only slightly surprised at herself when she said, "Is it so wrong that I like what I'm staring at?" Alex's right hand, gripped around the hilt of the small knife, stilled briefly before resuming its previous confident strokes.

"Unless you're trying to get pinned to this counter and fucked until you see Jesus, then yes." Piper's cheeks burned deeply and her pupils dilated as she continued to rake her gaze up the slope of Alex's toned arm, the one that was still working that knife over the vegetable in her left hand. She couldn't stop her mind from drifting to how that strong arm would look pumping those dexterous fingers between her legs. With a hard blink and her lips parting slightly, she took a step back as if she could physically separate from her thoughts. Of course she had seen girls have sex, most people got curious enough to watch lesbian porn at some point, but she never really considered it until she met Alex. Not to say that she wasn't attracted to girls before, she definitely had been, but sex hadn't crossed her mind until then. Would Alex have sex with her? She rolled her eyes at herself. She had only met the woman last night for fuck's sake. Alex turned to regard Piper with a grin when she didn't receive a response to her taunt.

"Thought so." She smirked as she finished cutting the pepper up and mixed it with the one that she had previously cut by pushing it all into a bowl.

After mentally shaking herself, Piper chanced another glance at this complete mystery of a woman. She was thinking far too much into this, into _them_, and it was only making her head spin. Finally, she pushed the groceries to the side of the island table that Alex was cutting vegetables on and raised herself up to sit on the edge. Once the taller woman finished collecting all of the tiny squares of peppers into a bowl, Piper placed her hand on top of Alex's. Olive toned eyes glanced at their hands for an instant before rising to meet Piper's cerulean gaze with an inscrutable expression.

"Alex?"

The brunette quirked an eyebrow. Piper already had her attention.

"What do you _really_ do?"

The taller woman drew in a breath before pushing it out in a gust of air from between her lips in a laugh. "I make a pretty kick ass apple pie." She bragged playfully before letting the smile drop at Piper's somber expression.

"I'm serious, Alex."

A sigh escaped the taller woman's lips as she turned her body to face her guest. Their gazes stayed linked for a longer moment than what was necessary.

"I've told you already. You might not have believed me, but… I did tell you." She let one shoulder rise and drop with an unapologetic expression on her pale face.

Piper's lips lifted in an incredulously unbelieving laugh. "What, the _international drug cartel_? Are you _joking_?" Alex merely raised an eyebrow, her jaw working from side to side as she reigned in her temper. She worked her ass off for her business, and having it undermined was not something that she was going to take lying down. Piper was still laughing, though now it was more of a hysterical noise leaving her lips.

"_Fuck_, Alex. What is _wrong _with you? Why would you get me involved in this? You're a criminal for God's sake!"

"I told you from the moment I met you, Piper! It's not like I fucking lied about it!" Alex's blood was slowly boiling within her veins, bubbling right below the surface. She was already expecting to be in deep shit with Fahri, her boss, for telling the blonde about what she did to begin with. Even Alex could admit that it was stupid, and Fahri was overwhelmingly uptight about stealth and discretion.

"Is that where you got all this money from? What you bought this _house_ with?" Piper scrunched her face in disbelief. "I'm in the house of a _drug dealer_!" She stressed, trying and failing to make the brunette see what she was so distraught over. Alex stared through narrowed eyes as she willed her heart to slow down. She counted in her head and tapped out the beats with her finger against the stainless-steel counter while soft, upbeat music provided background noise.

_Tap, tap, tap…_

"Jesus, you act like I kidnapped you! You came here of your own will." Alex defended herself, unwilling to merely stand there and let Piper berate her. She got enough undermining from Fahri, and she didn't need it from someone she had only known for less than a day. Piper's distress was evident in the way that her brows furrowed above her eyes and how she slid off of the counter onto the floor and paced back and forth between the counter and the island.

"You asked me to travel to _Paris_ with _drug dealers_!" She gasped and her blue eyes stared up at Alex with a look of complete betrayal.

"Is this what this dinner party is? All of your little druggie crew getting high together? You're _sick_, Alex!" The only thing she could think of was her parents' judgmental expressions and their disapproving gazes. They wouldn't tolerate this. She would never be looked at the same again, if they even decided to ever let her come back home. Family reunions filled with side glances and millions of questions, rumors, and lectures. She wouldn't hear the end of it. What if she got caught with drugs? If they traveled together, they would all get busted for contraband, she was sure of it. Piper's head was spinning and Alex's was slowly brimming over.

_Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap…_

"You don't know what the _fuck_ you're talking about." The taller woman growled harshly, taking a step toward Piper with her other hand sliding across the island counter top. She towered over the blonde woman with a lethal look in her eye that was common for her, yet brand new to her guest.

"I'm sorry, you know usually when someone tells me that they _traffic drugs_ across _international borders_, I'm much more relaxed!" Piper shouted, not backing down even through their height difference.

_Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap…_

"Do you know how hard I've worked to get where I am? I put my ass on the line _daily_ so that I can live the way that my mom wanted me to since I was born! If you have a problem with that, you can get the fuck out of my house." Alex finished with an eerily calm tone to her typically husky voice.

"You won't be enjoying your skylights from prison, now will you?" Piper glared with a nasty threat hanging behind her words that pushed to send Alex hurling over the edge. She hadn't lost control in a long time, and until Piper, she had been doing well.

"No mother would want this for her child." The blonde gave a final jab, enough to send Alex into frenzy. The pale woman moved with an unbelievable speed when she grabbed Piper by the throat and slammed her against the nearest wall. The blonde choked in shock, the hold wasn't strong enough to seriously harm her, and Alex leaned in to get level with Piper's wide eyed gaze.

"I want you to understand that I don't give a shit about morals, Piper. I give a shit about my job, and my life, and my mom. What you think is _right _or _wrong_ does not mean a _damn_ thing to me. I will not hesitate-" She tightened her grip around Piper's throat, hard enough to bruise, "to show you what a criminal really looks like."

Blue eyes grew in genuine fright as they locked with dreadfully serious green irises. The blonde was speechless, not that she was in any position to speak, and her chest heaved beneath Alex's strong arm. The slight show of muscles in the taller woman's bicep bulged just barely with the force of her hold around Piper's neck. She could choke her much harder if she wanted to. What was odd, however, was the dilation instead of contraction of the shorter woman's pupils and the way that those same blue eyes continued to move from Alex's eyes to her, to her arms, to her lips constantly since she was pushed against the wall. The raven haired woman finally let go, still not breaking their gaze, and Piper's hands flew up to cover her neck and the heat where a bruise would very likely form.

Alex still towered over her, and half of Piper was painfully turned on. That was the half that had given her the courage to sit with Alex and her friends at the bar last night, the half that wanted to defy herself and her parents and actually live her life for once instead of worrying about how everyone else wanted her to live it, the half that wanted to go to Paris with a group of strangers so that she could find her place in the world. That was the Piper Chapman that wouldn't have flipped out over drug pushers. That Piper understood people. The half of her that just argued with Alex, and probably made the tall beauty detest her, wanted nothing more than to just please her parents. That half wanted to run back to her mother and tell her that a group of criminals wanted her to get into something that she and her father would never condone. That was the part of her that she wanted so desperately to get rid of. Now, the more accepting half was drawn out by the inferno burning bright behind Alex's heated gaze, and fuck, if a furious Alex wasn't the hottest thing she had ever seen...

Piper's trembling hands slowly slid from covering her own neck to floating somewhere around the sides of her body as if she wasn't sure where to put them. The taller woman's eyes were locked on the red finger prints around the blonde's neck with some sort of internal, sick fascination. On the outside, though, she still looked royally pissed off. After a beat of tension filled silence between them, their burning stares met again, and neither of them were quite sure who moved first, but suddenly Piper's hands were gripping the front of her leather jacket and Alex's were tugging the blonde's silky hair.

Their lips collided together roughly, teeth clashing, and hot mouths open. Alex yanked on the fistful of hair in her grip and attacked Piper's neck roughly, her white teeth scraping down the expanse of her creamy neck. A red smear immediately welled to the surface and Alex couldn't get enough of marking the smaller woman. At the ministrations on her neck, Piper whimpered pitifully beneath Alex's hands as the raven haired woman gripped the front of her leggings' waistband with her other hand and pulled Piper impossibly closer. Blue eyes squeezed shut as Alex, very smoothly, maneuvered them so that Piper was bent over the island counter. A pale arm swept empty grocery bags to the floor to make room and the side of Piper's flushed face was pressed directly to the cold, stainless steel island counter top. Within seconds, Alex's body was molded against hers from behind as she leaned over to whisper in the blonde's burning ear.

"You have a lot to learn, Chapman."

For a split second, Alex was no longer pressed against her, but when she returned, the light music was no longer floating through the room. The only sounds were the clock ticking on the far wall and Piper's erratic breathing. A pale hand gripped the back of Piper's soft hair and yanked backward so that she could murmur in her ear again without bending over.

"Rule number one, never fucking disrespect me." Alex growled as she reached around the front of Piper's tensed stomach and slid her hand past the waistband of her leggings, dancing across the front of her underwear without ever touching where the blonde wanted her to the most.

Piper nodded as much as she could, completely helpless to the smoky voice in her ear. Her skin of her lip was very likely broken from how hard she was biting it, and the taste of copper slowly built in her mouth every time she licked her now dry lips.

"I'm sorry, Alex." Piper apologized roughly, her voice hoarse from how quickly all of the moisture in her mouth seemed to disappear to between her legs. Pale fingers slowly dragged up and down her slit through her panties and just when Piper thought she might finally have mercy and just _fuck her already_, the doorbell rang loudly throughout the entire house. Alex was gone just as quickly as she had bent her over and walked to the front of the house as if she hadn't just caused the blonde in the kitchen severe breathing problems. Piper hurried to make herself presentable. Her shaking fingers readjusted her leggings and smoothed her hair down from where it was surely disheveled around her head. Her hoodie was most likely wrinkled, however she wouldn't be wearing it for long if the sound of people showing up already was any indication. She had to get dressed. Voices floated from the front of the house and slowly receded to some location within it unknown to her.

Alex reappeared moments later as if nothing had happened. She heated up a pan on the stove and, after preparing it and letting it get hot, she dropped the peppers into it as if she had done it her entire life. Piper still stared in shock. Did she forget what was very close to happening on the very same island counter that she was now clearing off? After the raven haired woman moved to the refrigerator and pulled out everything that was prepared the day before, she stopped and turned to look at Piper with a raised eyebrow.

"What did I tell you about staring?"

Piper opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it once more.

* * *

When night fell over the great residence, everyone was seated around the large white wood table in the center of the dining room. Soft candle light illuminated the majority of the area while a chandelier at the center of the ceiling provided the rest of the light. Everyone was in attendance save for Piper, who had made a quick run to the restroom before they started to eat. In reality, it was nerves that had her trying to control her breathing in the spacious bathroom that smelled of strawberries and bath soap.

When she finally composed herself and entered the room, heels clicking delicately on the hardwood floors, an audible silence grew within a second.

Alex was the first to see her from her position at the head of the table, stopping mid sentence to take in the skin-tight black dress that hugged her body like a second skin. The slit up the side rose all the way to the top of her thigh and revealed an exposed leg that seemed to go on for miles. Her heels were almost dangerously tall and they pointed at the tips. Piper's blue eyeliner ended in a winged tip at the corner of her eye, complementing the azure color of her irises.

Everyone's gaze was on Piper and everyone wanted to know who this woman was. How important was she that Alex invited her to one of their most exclusive meetings? After her pause in movement, Piper continued her measured walk to the only seat available, the one on the right of Alex. Green eyes drank in her appearance hungrily as she got closer and the sight only served to cause severe warmth between Piper's legs at the thought of all the things Alex was imagining doing to her.

After the food was passed around by two short teenagers, one male and the other female, the group began to eat and laugh and taunt each other affectionately. However, it was a business meeting, and Alex had news.

She stood from the plush seat at the head of the table and lightly tapped her wine glass with the side of her silver fork with a raised eyebrow.

"I have an announcement. Two things. One, this is Piper." She paused briefly to gesture with her glass to the blonde beauty that sat blushing in a seat closest to Alex. The corners of Piper's lips curled up in a smile as she lifted a hand to wave slightly at everyone around the table. Alex continued with a grin of her own.

"Secondly," she started, and her face fell into a more grave expression.

"Fahri and I have discovered a leak within our numbers. You are shit at covering your tracks. Yes, we know exactly who the fucker is. So if he steps forward now, his consequence will be minimal. However, if he continues to be a coward, well… I think we know what happens next." The room was in a deafening silence by the time that Alex finished speaking and waited patiently for the rat to come clean.

Piper's wide blue eyes glanced around the room in one sweep before she decided that she didn't want to see the offender. She wanted Alex to go back to how she was when she bobbed her head to happy music and cracked jokes at her expense. This Alex was getting that murderous look behind her eyes once more. This Alex was lethal and scary and dangerous. This was not her Alex, if Alex was ever hers to begin with. Had she forgotten that this woman was still a stranger? Why did it seem impossible that they didn't know every inch of each other when from the moment they met they felt like old friends?

The tall, dangerous looking foreign man right across from Alex at the other end of the table stood as well, with a smirk curving his previously pursed lips. Was that Fahri? Piper looked from him back to the raven haired woman that she had become enamored with so completely. Alex looked like a lethal beauty in her attire, a form fitting navy blue dress that hugged her generous chest and caressed the rest of her curves perfectly.

Her hair was straight and hung down her back with subtle streaks of blue highlighting the ends. In one hand was a glass of the finest red wine the blonde had ever tasted, and in the other was a loaded gun. Piper thought at first that she didn't look capable of murder.

She wasn't sure anymore.

A man stood from his position at the far right of the table with his head held high and an alarmed look in his brown eyes. The light from the chandelier cast an almost sickly shine on his pale skin. Piper took him in with horror behind her eyes. She didn't have to guess what his 'minimal consequence' would be.

As soon as he met Piper's horror-struck gaze, everything seemed to happen as if in one instant.

Alex pulled a gun from its holster strapped to her thigh through a slit in the side of her dress and at the exact same time, the man at the opposite end of the table, Fahri, pulled one from the inside of his suit. There was a half second hesitation from Alex that caused Fahri to take control of the situation and fire instead, one silent bullet through the offending man's temple. Blood sprayed behind the undercover dealer due to the angle and spattered across the floor. The room was far too large for the blood to taint the walls.

Piper's hands flew to her mouth to hold back the scream that had been building in her throat from the moment that she and that man locked eyes. Her panicked gaze flitted around the room at the grave faces, yet what unnerved her even further was that no one seemed to be concerned for the man's life. When he slumped to the floor, head hitting the hardwood heavily, the man that had actually fired the bullet pulled out his phone and dialed a number with a practiced ease. He held it to his ear for a moment before opening his mouth to speak in a low, raspy voice.

"Get me a cleaner at Vause's house immediately." Without waiting for a reply, he ended the call and looked straight at Piper with a broad smile completely opposite to the expression he wore before.

"No more keeping our guest waiting. Let's eat." Fahri grinned and lifted his glass toward her with a glint in his eyes that Piper never wanted to see again.

* * *

**A/N: **Thank you all for the lovely feedback on last chapter. This one is a bit heavier, but it sets up what will happen in upcoming chapters. Please let me know what you thought in a review, it would really make my day.


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